


A Chance Encounter

by Archangel_Beth



Category: In Nomine
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-10
Updated: 2014-01-10
Packaged: 2018-01-08 04:49:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1128529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archangel_Beth/pseuds/Archangel_Beth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sean's looking for Leo. Sean finds someone who knows Leo. Sean tries to play the "guess the Band/nature" game, and doesn't quite manage.</p><p>NOTE! Spoilers for the <i>Star Wars</i> movies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Chance Encounter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fadeverb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadeverb/gifts).



> This is fanfic based on fade's fic. (fadeficfanfic! fanfadefic? fadefanfic?) And also based on a prior fanfic of fadefic. Anyway. Fanfic. Mostly of the "this character will not shut up" variety.

* * *

"Once seen by Judges in this area..." Sean muttered, in a War-whistle so no mundanes could overhear. "Suspected Tether to Theft in this area... Dammit, why can't anyone get a Seraph on this and give me some good information?"

But no, he got old, out of date information when he was trying to track down that... possibly redeemable... Calabite, to try to get another tracking hair for her vessel. No useful data for him, no, not for the Mercurian of War... Well, not from Judges, anyway. Cursed hyenas.

He was not "just about to give up," when he saw the girl. He'd been intending to get to the end of this section of the city, stomp one block over, and repeat down the sidewalk till he got to the end or found the Tether, whichever one came first. Giving up wasn't in the plan at all. The plan changed, though, as he followed his new target instead.

Her hair was bright pink, not auburn. She was wearing a ragged, sleeveless black shirt with some rock band's name faded into bits of metallic paint. Fishnets -- with holes -- and a knee-length utilikilt knock-off didn't seem like the Calabite he knew, but the metal-tipped boots with sensible heels would fit, and the _vessel_ looked about like Leo's female one.

He finally got close enough to get a good resonance...

It wasn't Leo. She went by "Kitty." She had ties to people -- people she liked, people she didn't like so much, someone she all but worshipped. And there, that feel, that person, _that_ was the Calabite he _wanted_ to get a handle on.

And that was also one of this girl's... role models. Heros. Someone she looked up to.

Someone who'd... rescued her, if he heard the Symphony right.

Which meant this "Kitty" was... a human? Leo did tend to rescue people sometimes, though less-often with his damned Djinn partner around. But someone who looked like Leo's younger sister? That bespoke a vessel more than coincidence, surely.

And yet... Someone who was as oblivious to being shadowed as a human would be. Someone who nearly danced -- clumsily, but with enthusiasm -- in her sturdy boots, spinning around as if the world delighted her.

The brief, horrifying thought that Penny might've somehow gotten Leo to donate a Force for reliever creation... Sean squelched it. The Seraph was weird, but not that weird. Besides, now that he thought about it, this girl's hobbies included things like stealing -- which really didn't sound like something Trade would've lent time nor Forces toward.

After going up one street, down another, and diagonally across a third, Kitty wound up in front of a Used Stuff store. Collectables, its sign claimed. Toys. Trading cards. The girl pressed her nose and hands to the glass, staring in at a bunch of old Star Wars toys.

When Kitty'd started plastering her entire front against the window, Sean decided now was as good a time as any to step in and possibly thwart a smash-and-grab. He took the steps necessary to wind up leaning on the wall just beside the window (and not so much of his weight into that lean as it looked, either), and said, "Hey, kid. I need to ask you about a friend."

She looked up, fast and with a up and down that was... cataloging _something_ , though he wasn't sure if it was how expensive his clothes were, or how combat-ready he was. Or something else entirely. Whatever it was, she seemed satisfied. "Do I know you?" she asked -- chirped, really, in a manic kind of way.

"Me? No, no. But I think we both know Leo."

"Leo...?" She cocked her head, like a kitten.

"You look kinda like her," Sean prompted.

Kitty's face lit up with a grin. "Oh! Leah! Yeah! You're a friend of hers?"

"Pretty much," Sean lied. It was only a little lie, really, if the Calabite was as redeemable as circumstantial evidence suggested. "I kind of need to get in touch with her."

For some reason, the girl's face fell a little. "Aw, that's too bad. She doesn't come by here much. I'd have to ask..." She paused. "Well, I'd have to ask around and see if anyone has her number."

 _Another dead end._ Sean shrugged. "Don't worry about it. It's not something too many people need to worry about, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah," Kitty said. "So... anything that maybe _I_ could help with?"

"Well, that depends," Sean said, thoughtfully and slowly, stalling. If the kid was a demon, then... that was one set of things Sean would need to do. If the kid was a human, that was another set of things he'd have to start on. He fished for more information. "Where'd you meet Leo, er, Leah, anyway?"

"She _saved_ me!" Kitty all but sang, expression going absolutely starry-eyed. "I was in a horrible, horrible place and she saved me! Her and her partner. But she did the most saving! She's _awesome_!"

That... was not a word usually applied to Leo, in Sean's experience. "And, uh, didn't take you back to your home?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course not. That's where I wanted to _leave_. She took me back to _her_ home! Well, kinda. It's complicated. But it was the best thing that ever happened to me! How'd you meet her?"

"We did a few jobs together," Sean said, which was the absolute truth, though he couldn't remember some of the details. "So I was hoping to look him, ah, her up."

"She _would_ be the best for just about any job," Kitty agreed. "What kind of job do you have in mind?"

"Nothing immediate. Just... wanted to talk to her, get some ideas, bounce a few suggestions off her, that kind of thing. If she's not around, no real point to it, though. So, ah, can I get you a milkshake or something?"

"I suppose, if you want. I do like 'em." She bounced over and linked arms with him. "So, do you watch old movies?"

He'd been about to ask if she had any preferred milkshake-providing places -- maybe there'd be a clue about the local Theft safehouse -- and the change of topic was abrupt. "Ah, been known to. Which ones?" Caper movies, maybe?

"Star Wars! It's my favorite!" She started towing him off. "It's really cool! It's about these rebels, see! And this Empire that's all conformist and stuff, and wants everyone to be exactly alike -- they put all their soldiers in identical white armor and helmets, so they have _no_ personality -- and the hero gets this _amazing_ sword, and starts learning how to use his special powers and his teacher gets them onto a ship with a smuggler and his partner, and they go to rescue a princess who shoots things and then they _blow up the Imperial Death Star_ because the Empire couldn't actually build it right in the first place! They had people to analyze the blueprints," she confided.

"That's... pretty much the plot, yeah," Sean agreed, feeling mildly steamrollered. "And... have you seen the others?"

"Not the first trilogy, because I remember that Leah and her partner were talking about it and how terrible it was, but I saw the other two after Star Wars! And it's really great! Because the smuggler gets captured and sold to his enemies and the princess gets him out and then the hero has to come save both of them and the princess is stuck in this _stupid_ outfit but she uses the chains to _totally strangle the slug_ which is _awesome_ , and in the end, the it turns out that the hero's father is the guy in the all-black thing who got his head all messed up by the old guy, the Emperor -- you just can't trust old guys, like, ever -- but then the Emperor is shooting lightning at the hero so his father breaks free and throws the Emperor down a pit! And the rebels blow up the _second_ Death Star! And have a big party because they blew up the Emperor and won!"

Sean wanted to believe that this enthusiastic admiration for a classic trilogy meant the kid was actually just a human, but there was something about the way she said "rebels"... Maybe it would be a good idea to just keep her talking, pay for her milkshake, head out of town, and pretend he'd never met Kitty.


End file.
